Hey Everyone! Thank you for all the support!
This week we are continuing the conversation started in last weeks post.
I going to talk about calories, meal replacement diets, and what are the reasons we retain/gain weight?
In my last post I talked about making new year’s resolutions and how they tend to end shortly after we begin. I touched on mindset and how the way we think about health and our bodies actually can affect you. As well as nutrients and how each of us has a different need that can lead to the result we want. And about the diet culture and how to break the cycle of just jumping from diet to diet.
All of these things boil down to self love and mindset! With so much information out there it is hard to know fact from opinion. Each of us are so different in the fact that our bodies, lifestyles and eating habits vary greatly. I want to continue going deeper and expand on the many variables and parts of these topics.
Have you heard of or tried shake meal replacement diets?
There are plenty of brands out now that make meal replacement smoothie mixes. Examples: Shakeology, Herbalife, Slimfast
These companies depend on people who want to loss weight fast. Or the pills that help you lose weight without changing your diet. Oh my! It is too much! I really don’t even understand how they can get people to buy in. Most of these products don’t give you long term results. So we stop one and try another and then another. When we are consistently trying things to lose weight fast and it usually returns shortly after you stop.
They can paint a great picture because so many people see results. Why? Because they put you into a sever calorie deficit. Which in short term can help you shed a few pounds and long term would actually cause your body to start retaining water and fat because you aren’t giving it proper nutrition. The initial weight loss begins with water weight and bile.
Large calorie deficits can cause your body to use every stored resources not just fats but vitamins and minerals also. Also, beware a lot of them have artificial ingredients and sweeteners. Look for ones with organic labels, whole foods blends, and non-gmo.
Don’t these shakes have added vitamins and minerals?
Some do and you can always add a multivitamin if you would like. One thing to take into account is that multivitamins and other supplements are not as readily absorbed as when they come from natural sources like vitamin C tablets versus eating an orange.
Here’s a few health articles from reputable sources:
Do multivitamins make you healthier? Published by Harvard
Is There Really Any Benefit to Multivitamins? Published by John Hopkins
Liquid Extract Vs Pill Published by Medicare Europe
I think drinking shakes is great for on the go and they can be if you are still eating properly also. A lot of meal replacement shakes have only 200 to 300 calories which makes it more if a snack than a meal. Our bodies have a base amount of calories we need to eat. You can get your estimated calorie needs here. Also I mentioned in my previous post about tracking your food intake. Most apps you track food on also track water intake, exercise and will give you an estimated amount of calories! I use Fitbit and it is so helpful for multiple things!
For me: I need 2,000 calories a day to maintain my weight at 5’3 and 150 pounds. If I want to drop weight, I would reduce calories by 250 to 500. I personally don’t recommend reducing your calories by half for faster weight loss (website for calculations gives you that option). I typically eat small snacks all day or one to two meals. I have very random food habits
What is the way to go about shedding weight and maintaining proper nutrition?
To be honest you might be surprised but losing weight has everything to do with how healthy your body is internally. Nutrition and healing/ inner work are the first 2 steps to putting your body into a safe space to lose weight. It is so much easier to get to a healthy weight and fitness level when you start with a strong nutritional foundation and great eating habits.
Nutrition is all about what we are eating like fruits, vegetables, vitamins and minerals. We need to eat healthy and sometimes supplement our bodies so they can heal themselves from aliments and other internal issues which in turn will put you in a place to release weight. Nutrition repairs our foundations so that our body can naturally regulate how much nutrients we need to maintain and stay healthy. When we are eating well and drinking enough, your body doesn’t crave anything because all your needs are being met!
Biggest key factors in eating nutrient dense diet:
To make your diet vegetable and fruit heavy
Eating the proper serving size of meats and grains
Drinking more water
If need be taking vitamin supplements
If at all possible, get a blood panel run for vitamins and minerals. A lot of the time at your yearly physical they will do a blood panel for certain things. Ask about what they look for and see if you can include any that are missing. I will be doing another post about vitamins and minerals and what they help with and why you need them.
Do you love snacking? Cause I do!
I believe the biggest thing that catches most of us is snacking. In the afternoon, at night or whenever you feel hungry. A lot of the time you may be dehydrated so you body is craving liquid not necessarily food.
Did you know water is suppose to be the source of many of our minerals like potassium and magnesium?
Water is a topic on it’s own. I will do a deep dive into what to know about water and how it truly affects our bodies. While recommendations vary on how much water to intake I have always followed the principle of 1 oz of water per pound you weigh. So if you weigh 150 lbs, you should drink 150 ounces. Which is a gallon plus a pint of water.
Before you grab a snack, try drinking some water or juice!
What is your favorite vegetable or fruit?
Mine are Strawberries and raspberries mostly. I also love honey crisp apples!
When you change out your snack foods from junk to healthy, you can eat more without worry of calories or gaining weight. If I ate a pint of raspberries everyday I would be healthier because they are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Verse eating a small bag of chips whose calories are the same but have no nutritional value. Vegetables and fruits are great snacks that also contain large amounts of water plus vitamins and minerals. Finding better alternatives to junk food (ultra processed foods) will actually give you more energy, water intake and you can eat more.
I am always hungry when I am moving for work or doing extra work around the house. I find snacking helps keep me from overeating. I prefer small meals all day versus 2 to 3 big meals. Everyone is different so pick something that works for you. Whether its planned big meals or small meals or intermittent fasting or any combination.
Why do we store weight?
There are a few reasons our bodies hold on to excess weight.
1. Trauma– When we have an experience that causes us deep hurt we store weight. Its based around safety and security. Trauma ranges from childhood wounds, break ups, job loss and more. A lot of us grow up and don’t learn how to work through and release traumatic experiences, so they then get stored in our body.
Example: Say someone breaks up with you, we then have a story around not being loveable or a reason they don’t love us or want to be with us. We can then internalize it and so our body wants to protect us. Internalizing those feelings and stories can subconsciously trigger weight gain. Also, when we are taught that food is a coping mechanism, instead of learning to cope through other measures we use food. This is where emotional eating happens and stems from.
2. Underlying health issues– When our bodies aren’t absorbing and releasing nutrients properly there might be a underlying cause such as celiac, crohns, diverticulitis or some other gut health issue. Our digestive system is the place that not only breaks down our food for nutrients. It is also where our hormones are produced.
Note: Celiac can cause you to become malnourished because of malabsorption. This happens because eating things you can’t digest cause your intestinal villus to lay day or start to die. Which then means nutrients aren’t getting absorbed and your body then uses its stored nutrients.
3. Overeating of high calorie, low nutrient foods– This is the most well known reason because of course many doctors assume you eat too much when you are overweight. While this is true for many because fast food is readily available versus healthy alternatives. Also, these high calorie foods are void of nutrients and this in turn triggers more hunger because you body is searching for certain nutrients.
Note: We subconsciously crave things that our body needs but can’t express. We crave salty or sugar when our body isn’t asking for potato chips or brownies, there is a deeper nutritional need. Sugar is used for energy so you can crave sweets when you are tired because your body needs energy.
What if I am doing everything right?
While our bodies naturally can heal themselves when they are in proper health nutritionally, you still might hold onto weight. Have you ever started working out and eating healthy and you lose a little weight then plateau?
First, I want to say it’s not because you aren’t working out hard enough! Doing more cardio or running is not going to trick your body into releasing more weight. If working out is hard then you are doing it wrong. I use to think I had to go and push myself doing x,y and z. Working out should be challenging in the essence of pushing you out of your comfort zone. Not hard as in I don’t like running on the treadmill but I am going to force myself to run 2 miles a day. That actually can have the opposite effect.
About 3 years ago, I had bought into an online program that was like 6 or 8 weeks of workouts. I also hired a personal trainer for a few sessions. I had gotten to my heaviest weight and felt terrible in my body. I also joined the 60 day weight loss challenge to give myself another reason to stick to it. I did my program as a way to release the stresses of the day. I walked 5 to 7 miles a day around my work and then went to the gym and ran on the treadmill, my legs exhausted. I pushed through it all because I thought this is what I have to do to be fit and lose weight. I lost about 10 pounds from beginning to end and it was the hardest thing I did. I liked the program and did feel stronger but it was a lot to maintain. I ate healthy and was staying under calories yet it seemed to have plateaued by the end. I was pushing so hard and didn’t release that over taxing my body actually was having the opposite results.
Second, we have deeper reasons for not losing weight than just on the surface. This is where trauma comes in. We can go to the gym 5 times a week or 2 to 3 times a week and sometimes the difference doesn’t come from changing up our routine or trying new exercises and diets. Ok look at those weight loss shows on tv, they use to lose a bunch of weight and a lot of people from it would end up gaining it back after it was over. When we don’t deal with the stories that live underneath all the weight, we can’t really let the weight go!
This is where I got stuck. In my last post I shared a little about how I viewed my body. I hadn’t gotten into inner work and healing trauma yet so I was stumped at why it wasn’t working. I did that challenge towards the end of 2018. I stayed going to the gym and continued to work at losing weight. Work got busy again and I slowly tampered off of going. Again not prioritizing my health. I was in a really dark place in my mind, my workplace was negative, my relationship was strained. I was in a bad state of mind. When my best friend invited me to a challenge for manifesting (I want to say early 2019), I didn’t even really know what it was about, I read though the webpage and watched the video something in me said why not. And it literally changed my life. I didn’t realize a lot of things I was holding onto and honestly from that point on things started to change in my mindset. I didn’t lose weight yet as I had a lot of things to work through between my mind, work and relationship. I had a lot of trauma to work though. Starting from childhood into adulthood, none easy to work through, yet I sitting here today I wouldn’t have it any other way. After I had lost my job end of 2019, I deep dived into healing and releasing and slowly began to lose weight. I didn’t hit the point of looking at my body with love honestly until Spring of 2020.
*One thing to note also is you can store water so if you start working out and you lose fat then your body stores water in the cell until it recognizes that it doesn’t need that space anymore for fat.
Nutrition and Inner work
While many might understand nutrition basics; many probably haven’t really dived into inner work. When I write my story about my journey from unhappy at 185 lbs to now happily 150 (which i literally weighed myself like a week ago). Honestly, I couldn’t care less about what I weigh now and probably wouldn’t have go a scale if my niece hadn’t asked. I am in love with learning more about myself and my body and loving it in the process!
Nutrition in my book is 60% of the work. Understanding what your body needs and avoiding things that don’t make you feel good or that are refined and over processed will help you heal from the inside out. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t have fries or for me State Fair Food every once in a while it means getting your body to a place where your body knows exactly what it needs and you don’t crave things based on lack! Once we go more into macro and micro nutrients, you will see they reasons all of these things are so important! Eating well heals our mind, body and spirit. When our mind is clear it opens up to a safe space to heal.
Healing/ Inner work is 30% of the puzzle. Our mindset and beliefs influence so much of our lives without us really knowing. Inner work starts with stepping back and asking is this really for me. Is working out really what I want to do? If the answer is no, you have healing to do around your mind and body. When its yes your question changes to what kind of work outs support the life and body I want to have. When we start at the root it releases all the stories intertwined with it to. Inner work is looking in the mirror and really seeing yourself the parts you love, the parts you want to change, the parts that hurt and the parts that make you proud.
Working out/ Exercise is only about 10% of it. When we get our nutrition on point and we work on healing stories around our body and beliefs around food, health and exercise. We unlock a naturally healthier version of us and then we work out or exercise because it supports who we are becoming it doesn’t feel like a struggle!
The more we get deeper the more it opens up new levels of information! Let me know what you think or you story around health and wellness! I would love to hear them!
I am now accepting orders for Super bowl Sunday (Feb 7th) and will be releasing Valentine’s day specials (Friday 1/22)!
Sending you love and positivity until next time!
Alexia
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